I’m preparing for a walk and using the Five Essentials for a Radiantly Fulfilling one! Here’s how they’re playing out!

1. Know Your Trail

We chose the New England Trail because John wants to walk all 11 National Scenic Trails. This one is in the Eastern US where we have been this summer. He’s been poring through websites getting information and details, starting with newenglandtrail.org

trailjournals.com and other sites located by googling the trail name.

What we found out is that this trail winds through a narrow corridor on public and private land, crosses three rivers, and is fairly low in elevation. There’s no crossing at the Connecticut River, requiring a shuttle or very long walk around to a bridge – or a boat ride across! He found a detailed guidebook online. A hiker created it and offers it free! It’s very helpful. I found printed maps and ordered them. We’ve been studying the maps and guidebook, putting together a possible itinerary. We want to walk it as a thruhike. One important aspect of this trail is the stated description that “no stealth camping is permitted.” That means investigating off-trail places to stay in addition to the 8 designated on trail shelters and campsites. We estimate 21 days for the 235 miles. John has played for many hours with Google Earth locating services near the trail.read more

Wild Wind Journey Day is open for your participation! We’ll meet Barbara on Sunday afternoon, June 10 for live singing of her songs woven into my Walk for a Singing Heart, plus live guidance in my Sensory and NonSensory Awakening walks. This includes my nourishing Color Immersion play. It’s a delightful and surprisingly transformative experience that you can do with Barbara and I in person!

This week marks the ten-year anniversary of the launch of my Pacific Crest Trail walk. If you’re not familiar with that trail, it’s one of the eleven National Scenic trails, 2,650 miles long, winding northward from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada. In 2007, I focused my attention on completing the Appalachian Trail, viewing its completion as a way to get the project out of my system to clear my mind for my next career. I had not even heard of the PCT until I spent a night at the Kincocora Hostel, in Tennessee just shy of 1800 miles into my walk from Maine on the Appalachian Trail. Even paging through the Yogi’s Guide to the PCT didn’t entice me.read more

“Do what you love, the money will follow.” Decades ago, I read this. I read Marsha Sinetar’s book by that name and thought, “Sure, for me it would be do what I love and the money will follow waaay behind, far far behind. Do what I love and the money will follow my own investments in doing what I love.”

Well, I’m now wrapping up my fourth season of doing what I love at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park with money in the bank and in my retirement fund. And, if I also count the seven seasons I worked as a Ridgerunner on the Appalachian Trail, that would add up to eleven seasons earning money doing what I love. It can happen – even to a doubter like me!read more

Yesterday’s fifth anniversay of my divorce invited me to consider how I am embracing my new relationship. I thought, “Why not invent something new rather than continue pitying myself for settling for a similarly shallow relationship?”

Well, it turns out that my partner took care of that. He bought a 4×4 Chevy Tahoe! “Now, we can drive deeper into the desert,” he celebrated. “Not to just drive, but to position ourselves for walking in more remote places.”read more

In the best spirit of Radical Forgiveness which gave me the tools to be able to stand in gratitude and honor for this day, I acknowledge with openness to a Spiritual purpose, that today marks the fifth anniversary of my divorce. I acknowledge, love, accept, and honor myself and my ex for courageously stepping through this gateway – away from feelings, because of beliefs, toward relationships,into an unknown neither of us anticipated when we said, “I do”.

Yet, divorce has given me experiences I value in their rawness and power. Divorce links me with others with whom I now have a bond of the heart. To all of us, blessings on the journey!read more

I love studying the collage of photos I put together for your 18th birthday. I know there have been photos since then, but these are easily accessible and reflect the time that I was with you a whole lot more than I have been in the last 11 years! Here’s a sampling of one corner of it. I celebrate your life and my gratitude for being your mom. What I love about you Simon:

For Wild Wind Journey Day, on June 10th in Atlanta, Barbara’s mission is to learn the alluring drum rhythm of her song Wild Wind and have a chime that rings at just the right time in Perfect Love. I want to make sure that she feels the part as my Forgiveness Walks muse, contributing the five transformative songs of Walk for a Singing Heart which will guide us through our afternoon’s exploration into courage. In Wild Wind Journey Day, Barbara and I will entice you to invoke something fulfilling that you’re dreaming of doing. Through Nature, color, song, and supportive emotional clearing, we will entice you to step boldly into your Wild Wind.read more

Designing this summer’s journey has been a roller coaster ride! Several itineraries have taken the stage, been proposed, envisioned, and evaluated. I sadly let go of my Ridgerunning job for this summer, replacing it with a progression of family visits and long distance walking. Now, yet another version calls! It evokes my allegiance to family to take center stage, letting other passions wait in the wings for another season.